Caedis Mortem
by megamatt09
Summary: A Harry Potter who has lost everything forces Voldemort's hand. One shot.


Ten years at the Dursleys, six at Hogwarts, and a further five at the Wizard Prison Azkaban, which now lay on the ground in ashes. Harry Potter steps out into the light and awaits the arrival. Not too long after Harry arrives does Lord Voldemort arrive. They stand face to face together. Voldemort keeps a hand to draw his wand to strike Harry down or at least make an attempt to do so.

"We really could be doing this forever, Tom."

Voldemort peers through the red slit like eyes Harry recalls facing so many times.

"You are persistent and durable. I can't kill you. I can't break your mind or your spirit. I managed to poison your reputation among your friends and allies, turning this world against you. Those who stood behind you, they decay."

"The support of them was always fair weathered Voldemort. You've lost a lot yourself."

"They were weak."

Typical Voldemort, dismissing the losses. Harry stares down his hated enemy.

"Are you here to kill me, Tom?"

"When I first offered you the chance to join me, you were young, foolish, and naive. You were blinded by Dumbledore's limited worldview. But now time has shown you the fallacy of your ways. I offer you another opportunity. You can join me, serve me, and I will make your dreams come true. I will allow you a chance of revenge against those who wronged you."

Harry smiles. The crackling of burning flesh fills the air the closer he goes.

"Revenge is a useless pursuit. I'm certain that you would get some enjoyment of the only person who you cannot defeat serving you. But, you offer me nothing. In fact, I wish to offer you a counter offer."

Voldemort entertains the obvious, even if the boy's arrogance frustrates him.

"Let me walk away from this. Let me leave this country. Do not hunt me down. And you will have what is left of this world."

"The hero's lost this nerve?"

Voldemort's question brings much amusement to Harry.

"Wasn't it you that once said that there is only power and those too weak to seek it?"

The inclination of the Dark Lord's head indicates something.

"I should kill you."

"You can try. But the moment my heart stops, you will be dead as well. And eventually, just another footnote in history."

Voldemort stands forward and points his wand at Harry. The words are at the tip of his tongue. Curiosity prevents Voldemort from firing the Killing Curse off.

"Tell me, Voldemort, are you familiar with the Caedis Mortem curse?"

Being a brilliant scholar himself, Voldemort responds with a nod.

"It was a spell which was long since used by old purebloods on top of marriage rites. It was to prevent one party from arranging the death of another. Basically, if one partner died, the other died alongside them. The Ministry outlawed it a century ago."

Harry just smiles.

"And I performed the rite on myself."

"But, we're not married, Potter."

"To the disappointment of a few of my fangirls on the Internet I'm sure."

Voldemort looks at Harry strangely. It's obvious that he's cracked in the head, but constant torture and trauma has caused the boy to crack.

Harry chuckles and decides to let Voldemort in on the secret.

"You see, when you tried to kill me all those years ago, you created a Horcrux in this scar. I've got it mostly under control. It's also a handy get out of jail free card if someone killed me. But, I'd be dead long enough for it to count for you."

The Dark Lord thinks Potter may be ignorant. He has more anchors to this world.

"All of your other Horcruxes are destroyed other than my scar. Don't believe me...check up on them yourself."

"You bluff, Harry Potter."

"Maybe, I do, but if I'm not bluffing, you will be dead. And that's not something you want. But, I've been inside of your head, I know you fear death. But you fear something else, being irrelevant after your death. No one will remember you for anything else other than being Dark Lord who lost to a young child again and again and again."

The nail drives in Voldemort's head constantly.

"And you want to know something else funny. If you never took my blood in the graveyard, I wouldn't have been able to perform Caedis Mortem on you. Your ego has always been your weakest point."

Harry steps up and pokes Voldemort right in the chest to show he has nothing left to lose.

"Kill me if you think I'm lying. The Horcrux will be gone and I'll get back up. But you'll be dead."

Harry grins and walks back from him.

"Let me leave and never both me again. You can take over this country, or what's left of it,"

"Don't you want to protect them?"

"Riddle, you killed anyone I cared about over here. I didn't think you cared so much."

It almost insulted Voldemort that Potter would walk away after all of this time. It's almost like Potter thought that Voldemort was beneath him. That caused the Dark Lord's ego to take a hit.

Harry lifts Voldemort's arm up and points the tip of the Dark Lord's wand on his forehead.

"Two words if you don't believe me."

Voldemort cannot reconcile anyone embracing death like this. It's the final proof that Potter's not bluffing and by killing him, it will seal Voldemort's fate. Still he weighs his options a little bit further.

"It's been a good run."

The wand drops and Voldemort steps back.

"Leave and never return."

"Gladly."

The Dark Lord hates Potter more than ever especially now that Potter will force him to live with the fact that Voldemort, no matter what, was unable to defeat him.

The mist thickens and clears with Harry Potter never to return. It leaves Voldemort there to ponder what happens next.

* * *

 **End.**


End file.
